


Won't Let Him Go

by When_the_Day_Met_Night21



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, cuz the Gertchase fandom showed some interest when I brought it up on Tumblr lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-28 08:31:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16237928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/When_the_Day_Met_Night21/pseuds/When_the_Day_Met_Night21
Summary: Prompt: If Chase had let himself be the one taken instead of Karolina by Jonah and the group chose to leave him behind like Nico said they would if it had been him. Gert tries to pretend that she’s handling it okay but not really.





	Won't Let Him Go

**Author's Note:**

> So this happened because I was having feels thinking of if this happened while watching 1x10 and picturing how Gert would handle it. I didn't originally intend to make it a fic but then some people on Tumblr showed interest so I decided when I could get around to it that I would try to give it a shot. So here we are. Enjoy!
> 
> As always thanks Lauren (backtothestart02) for betaing this. She always helps me get the heavy cringe out. lol Appreciate it. <3

 

_“If it was me in her place, I would want you guys to go.”_

_“If it was you in her place, we would, but it’s not. Remember? It’s Karolina.”_

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

_Why did he have to let himself get taken?_

Gert was currently lying in her spot next to Molly on the worn-out blanket they were sharing, wondering how the night had taken so many turns in such a short amount of time. It was supposed to be a simple mission. For them to go into the drilling site and destroy as much of it that they could to stop Pride’s plan.

The possibility of security or their parents showing up had been factored in, but the surprise appearance of the mysterious man named Jonah made the mission all the more dangerous. He was silent but had such a threatening presence about him that while the kids stood their ground together, it was clear that he was not going to show them mercy. Not with powers like his. His eyes zoned in specifically on Karolina.

“You guys have to go. He came for me,” she stated. She brushed off the others’ protests as she firmly continued, “I’ll hold him off, and I’ll meet you guys outside, okay? It’s the only way.”

“Don’t do this. Please, I’m begging you, okay?” cried Nico, grabbing for Karolina’s hand as she looked up at her with wide pleading eyes. “You can’t do this alone.”

“We can’t actually leave her behind, can we?” Gert whispered to Alex, in complete disbelief at what was happening. This couldn’t be real.

Alex said nothing, as if he had already decided that they could. On the other side of Nico though, it seemed as though Molly had asked Chase a similar question to what Gert had because a second later, he stood forward in a determined manner with his fistigons ready to be put to good use. “No.” He took a lunge, and two powerful light beams came flying from him towards Jonah, who used his own powers to stop this. The man continued until Chase fell back to the ground.

“Chase!” Gert shouted, wishing that she had been closer to him so that she could reach for him.

“Go!” Chase yelled, still not up from his spot. “Let me make this right for destroying that evidence of them before. I shouldn’t have done that.” He looked at all of them, unflinching. “Go now.” He nodded at Karolina. “And take her with you.”

Karolina shook her head. “But, Chase-“  

Chase unsteadily stood up and used his fistigons again. “Go now!”

Before Gert knew what she was doing, she was following the others away from the site, but not without sparing a glance back at Chase and praying that he could understand what she wanted to say to him in that moment. He held her gaze and simply said, “Go, Gert,” and that was all. So, she did.

_Why did I have to leave it like that? Why didn’t I say something back?_

She should have. The boy she had loved for longer than she could even remember had risked his own life for all of them. And she just stared at him like an idiot and ran away.

And to top it all off, the last thing she had told him was the sex they’d had earlier that night wasn’t important and had been just a one-time thing. _Great._

So, if Chase died, he would die not knowing the truth about how she felt about him. Which was that she wasn't mad at him. Well, maybe she was a little bit in that moment, because again, why did he have to let himself get left behind? Why did he do something so stupid and reckless? _Why_?

Gert remembered how the group had run for what felt like hours until they decided to stop in the middle of some woods to catch their breath. “What do we do now?” she asked.

“I can’t think. I need sleep,” Alex replied groggily, taking his glasses off to rub his face.

“Sleep? Who can sleep right now?” Karolina asked him with some edge. Molly answered that by resting her head on Gert’s shoulder as they sat beside Old Lace. _That was fair._

“And when we do wake up…” Gert inquired, doubtfully, “what happens then?”

“We get outta town,” Alex answered.

“Wait… You seriously want to just leave Chase behind?” Karolina took a step forward, frowning disapprovingly at the boy. “I thought we were a team.”

“Karolina-“ Nico made a grab for her wrist, but Karolina waved this off. “No, we should go back. We’re supposed to stick together, remember?”

She had been saying everything Gert wished she could have in that moment, but she also couldn’t subside the thought that maybe Chase wasn’t alive anymore. Which is what she ended up voicing out loud instead of what she really wanted to.

“We can’t think like that,” Karolina said, stepping in her direction. She had a look in her eye that Gert could tell was sympathetic. Which also meant that the other girl could sense how worried she was for Chase, and Gert actually didn’t mind it. Karolina knew how Gert felt about him by this point, and it was kind of nice to have an ally in that moment.

“Look,” Alex spoke, “we have no idea where they’re keeping Chase, or if they have him at all. It’s not worth the risk. Chase made his choice.”

Gert couldn’t believe the sharp tone that had come out of the boy’s mouth and wanted to protest. She looked around at the others and found that all of them had faces full of defeat, even Karolina. Still, she did get one last word in. “Coward.”

That one word almost made Gert smile, proud of the other girl for her spunk.

For the rest of the day, the group decided to make a camp in the woods and make a food trip as well. After all, they had a dinosaur to keep fed too. Alex had brought up the idea of Gert saying goodbye to the creature in case it would lead to them being found, but she refused this. She couldn’t lose another thing that meant a lot to her right now. Not when she needed all the support she could get.

Lying there in the woods that night, Gert stared up at the stars with tears in her eyes. What if she never saw Chase again? Were they really gonna leave him behind when they woke up that next morning? Was she really going to put up no fight this time?

She thought of the night before, how she had made her wildest dream come true. Chase, willingly, taking her in his arms and kissing her until there was nothing between them, simply lips on lips, skin on skin. She remembered how lost they had gotten in that moment, in each other. She couldn’t have asked for a better first time, and how glad she was that it had been Chase. Like she had always hoped it would be.

But then she remembered how everything after had been such a blur. Frantically grabbing clothes in silence, witnessing the end of Karolina and Nico sharing a kiss, and quite possibly the longest drive Gert could ever remember taking. All this before she had to start snapping at him.

Gert knew she shouldn’t have done it. Yes, she wished Chase had taken the time after the sex to talk to her about what it had all meant, but there hadn’t been _time_. Not when they had an evil plan to stop that no one else would. Still, she let herself self-sabotage the moment by saying that what had happened between them didn’t matter.  That it had only been a one-time thing.

All she could remember was the brief look he gave her when he asked, “It was?” Almost as if he was a lost puppy. Gert had written it off at the time, but she now realized that he had been disappointed. That maybe it had meant something to him after all.

_“I’m not saying that what happened between us wasn’t_ also _important-“_

Gert had been too dismissive when he spoke those words. She knew it. So, Chase hadn’t said the perfect declaration she had hoped he would, but she could recognize that the sentiment was hidden in there. She then thought of the look they shared before she ran away from the site. It had only been a moment, but there had been something inscrutable in his eyes that had stayed with her.

She wanted to believe she knew what it had been, but she didn’t dare think it. Not without him there to confirm it.

All night Gert tried to sleep but couldn’t help thinking about Chase. Whether he was alive, where he was if so, and if they could save him. Her anxiety was up the roof the whole time, and she struggled to control her breathing. But she hummed her secret song to herself as she stroked Old Lace, who laid on the other side of her. Somehow she had forced herself to close her eyes and slept, but in the morning Gert was quickly reminded of their situation when she saw only four other teenagers, no Chase.

_It really happened. We left Chase behind._

It was Molly who said something about it first. “This doesn’t feel right without Chase here.”

“Now guys, we agreed-“ Alex started, firmly.

“ _You_ decided, you mean,” Karolina snapped. Her eyes wandered towards Gert, as if taking in her response to all of this. “I still say we should go back.” It almost sounded like there was a challenge in her voice, to get the proper reaction out of Gert.

“We should,” she spoke up, earning a smile of approval from Karolina. “Chase didn’t have to do what he did, but he still did it.”

There was hesitance from both Alex and Nico, but after some more words being thrown around, the pair was eventually convinced to try. “All right, but where do we go? Where would they take him?” asked Alex.

“The church,” Karolina declared.

_We’re gonna get him back. We will. We’re coming for you, Chase. I’m coming._

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> So, hopefully, you guys enjoyed that! Idk if it's what any of you asking for envisioned for this fic idea but it's what I came up with. Let me know what you thought in the comments! :)


End file.
